After playing
a doubleheader in Cincinnati, the Padres have to fly to Colorado to
open up a weekend set against the Rockies. Fly ball specialist Eric
Stults will take the mound for the Padres and the Rockies will
counter with Jorge de la Rosa. Stults has not fared well in Coors
Field, which should come as no surprise. In 149 PA, Rockies hitters
have batted .310/.401/.509. Sixteen of the 39 hits allowed have
gone for extra bases.

At home, the
Rockies offense has put up video game numbers. As a team, the
Rockies are batting .355/.401/.600/1.001 with 33 home runs in 715
plate appearances. Not only are the Coors numbers and the Rockies
offensive numbers damning evidence against Stults, he's simply not
pitching that well overall. He's seen a drop in strikeouts with a
minor drop in walks and has allowed eight home runs in 39.1 innings
of work. Location has been a problem for him and bad pitches go a
long way in Denver.

Jorge de la
Rosa has been a little unfortunate this season with a ground ball
rate of 55 percent and an elite defense behind him, but his ERA is
still 4.81 with a 4.78 FIP. His HR/FB rate will come down, even
with Coors Field as a home park, because the bulk of his career has
been there and it has rarely been as high as 16.7 percent.

de la Rosa is
a guy that had his statistics skewed by a couple bad outings. In
his last five starts, de la Rosa has thrown 30 innings with a 2.70
ERA. He has thrown 60 percent strikes and has held opposing hitters
to a .245/.325/.364 slash line.

After a long
day in Cincinnati and a horrible situation for Eric Stults, plus
the Padres very inconsistent and below average offense, the Rockies
have an opportunity to win this game in a real big way.